He has a room temp IQ... - Yuri about Joachim's funny habit of picking weapons
Yea... Not even lukewarm...- Gepetto

"Ugh, no kidding. I've got two more Character Quests in Legendia, plus there's Ogre Battle: Let Us Cling Together (PSX), Magna Carta: Tears of Blood, and an unopened Grandia III to get to, not to mention Shadow Hearts: From the New World is coming out soon and I do want to get to Tales of Phantasia (GBA) when it comes out. And then Suikoden V's on the horizon... and Kingdom Hearts II...

Money's bad enough, but it's finding TIME for RPGs that's the real killer."

Got this from someone's post on gamefaqs. XD That guy speaks the truth.

Do anyone remember Incredible Crisis? Or do any people even know this game? XD
It appeared on Ps1 many years ago, and by chance, I got it. After school, I went to my ex-best friend's house to play this game, three of us.

That game is highly addictive but also insanely difficult. It's like a bishibashi game, with 24 mini games, the difference is Incredible Crisis follows a lame but funny storyline. And Bishibashi level of difficulty X 50. The first stage is where you play as the breadwinner of the family who works in a company. The first stage is something very similiar to DDR when you time your button inputs according to the rhythm. It is still difficult because it has to be REALLY accurate. Not half a second more or less.

The second stage is where the breadwinner need to run away from a huge iron boulder. This need some X tapping, but still easy because it's short.

The third stage was the BIGGEST killer. The stage consist of 2 parts and MAD X bashing. The breadwinner ran into the lift to avoid the iron boulder, but the rope that holds the lift was cut, and it's speeding down to crash. The breadwinner have to press the emergency button as much as possible with little obstacles from the sky dropping on his head which cause you to lose valuable seconds.

We never got past the 3rd stage, because seriously. Without a Turbo controller, your thumb could not press the X button that freaking fast.

As a very pro bishi-bashi and DDR player (Not now anymore. T_T) back then, I was very determined. I managed to scrap past the first part of 3rd stage, but the game threw another round of X button bashing.

It's really funny when I think about it.

And as for why I bought this up, because my best friend visited me, we are both awfully bored, so we dug some old games and play again.

C.Games Update
Completed Digital Devil Saga 2 and Dragon Warrior 8 during the month's MIA. Though this is highly contradicting to my statement earlier, DW8 is actually packaged with heaps of fun. XD I will post my little review here later. Adding on, the translation team in Square Enix also pulled off a really good effort with little grammatical mistakes or spellings. I really love the DDS2 ending, though it could have been alot better. The buildup is plenty good and you don't see...
*BIG SPOILERS*
The game really killed the entire cast of characters. Yes, they died and they went up to heaven. No kidding.
*SPOILERS END*

Wild Arms: Alter Code F is also in good progress, probably a few more dungeons away from completing. =/ However, it freezed in a very long cutscene, so there. The good news is my save is still good for import to Wild Arms 4, and there are many things to carry over so at least my effort isn't wasted.

For the moment, I will either resume my game on Magna Carta or stop altogether.

Original Soundtracks
^_^ I managed to get Zone of Enders 2nd Runner, Tales of Destiny 2 and Star Ocean 2 (Alert!) OST! So happy! Though my original intention is to find Magna Carta ost. -_- But I guess the ost is way too popular.

Valkyrie Profile Prequel
There will be a prequel for VP called Valkryie profile: Silmeria. Takes place about hundreds of years before the events of VP1. No other news are known, my guess is that you may control one of the two other valkryies (To recap, there are 3 valkyries, and they take turns to awaken.)
http://www.square-enix.co.jp/vp/
There's nothing on the website just the logo. XD But stay tuned!

Working Designs closes shops!
Yes, they close shop. T_T In case you don't know what's working designs, they are the mastermind behind the U/C version of Lunar Silver star story and eternal blue, and more recently, Growlanser generations. Heard they are not making any money because of overwhelming competition... That also marks the end of Lunar 3, never able to see daylight or meet its swarm of fans.

Release Dates
I'm crossing my fingers that Rogue Galaxy will make it to U/C! There's no official announcement yet... But alot of rumors are brewing around.

Grandia 3 U/C version is officially announced yesterday. Will appear on March 2006. Quite alot of games are clotted around that date... I guess most will be delayed... -_-

Gamelog!
Started working on Suikoden tactics! About half way through the game and managed to get the Suikoden 4 hero and Snowe, thanks to my existing S4 save! =) But I lost interest immediately. Maybe I will complete it. One day.

Seems like Square-Enix's two timing didn't change the fact that it won't be immensely popular in Japan at least.
http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/xbox-360-japan-launch-guide/xbox-360-osaka-launch-shortage-halftruths-142315.php

Singapore might be another story, since I do know a couple of friends who had an Xbox, but not a PS2. But when I ask whether they are going to get the "3rd generation" console, they say no. I can't blame them though. Their Xbox is collecting dust since 1, 2 yrs ago. As time is moving on, more and more people are dropping out of console games and in favour of PC games. It's sad, but I guess that's how it is, it's no longer quite possible to devote time to play RPGs.

Back to Xbox360, however, America is suffering a shortage of that where Amazon/ToysRus are unable to cope with the demand. I still can't get why they are getting Xbox360. The lineup ain't very fantastic yet.

I'm still watching (and saving) which one have the most preferable amount of nice RPGs, so I'm still trying very hard to convert myself to neutral ground.

Really. Is it my fault that I hate the Xbox controller so much? It's fat.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/638/638865p1.html
http://www.betanews.com/article/Final_Fantasy_Creator_Joins_Xbox_Team/1109354174
http://www.tgdaily.com/2005/08/20/consoles_will_rule/index.html
kudos to Miss Sharon for the news!
Time to kick the "PS sony fan" title and turn neutral! XD To summarise the above urls, Square Enix is breaking off the alliance with Sony, and hit it off with Xbox as well! Now there could be a chance that Xbox360 might actually sell well, not only for the timing factor, cheaper, and developers like Square Enix going over... -_- You know well what that means. It means anything could happen. Stay tuned!

Make some little further progress on Monday for I reported sick for work. Stomach flu? viral fever? Either way, I have no appetite for anything and just the food smell makes me want to puke. More on that in my private blog. :P

Anyway, though I drift in and out of sleep on Monday (or in and out of the toilet), I did play Magna Carta for a little more than usual.

Reached the part where I have to rescue Reith in Fuget. I can't seem to count the amount of times Calintz need to save her. The game also reveal some very interesting hints of Reith's past, which hints that Reith might know Calintz when they are much younger. However, all that is SPECULATION, so nope, that's not a spoiler.

The attraction between Reith and Calintz is starting to bother me, since war decisions in this game is entirely rational, I was hoping that the attraction between the 2 heroes are logical. Unfortunately, it prove otherwise, since at 1/3 of the game, the party will be split up into two, with Calintz and Reith leading each. Their interaction at its minimum, so how is it possible for them to like each other? please spare me the "It's Physical attraction, dummy!" comments, because though I notice Reith's assets loud and clear, or maybe Reith's just simply les to Calintz, this is not what a love story supposed to be about. :P I simply can't love someone when he almost killed me just for a little racism squabble.

Gameplay wise, I'm getting better and able to manuever around the battle with ease. Though it can do much more user-friendly work, it's decent, but the learning curve is too much for a casual gamer (about 2, 3 hrs to grasp it, and 15 hrs to master it.)

Story/Character
Now that's something to praise about. Calintz has a certain cockiness in his speech (think Yuri but cut the humor), but only for those people whom he disrespects. Throughout the first 2 hrs of the game, it is emphasized that he believes in authority, and when he's leading, he is willing to sacrifice himself to save/protect his comrades. He keep thinking he's out to destroy, but in my opinion, he has the compassion worthy of a leader. This is also a realistic characteristic of Calintz, he obey authority but also expect full trust from his comrades. (Expect what other people do to you, with what you do to them.)

To add on, Calintz has a high level of intelligence (unlike Jack Russell or some simple-minded idiots, so much that you want to strangle them) You will notice that from time to time, when faced with a situation, he is able to think calmly and evaluate choices. Now that's something you don't see in most RPGs.

The plot at this point is full of mysteries, alittle like Evangelion, but I believe it will be eventually explained and all subtle hints will be tied up together. Reith is a very interesting character, full of mysteries, but I'm starting to make speculations of her identity.

That's about the stuff I wish to highlight, nt mentioning the astounding OST.
All in all, the game is very punishing, but the backbone of this piece is its story and characters. All the characters at this point are all very likeable. As for the technical aspects, I'm pretty forgiving since Softmax is quite a new Korean company, and I believe with more experience, they can do better, and rival the top players out there.

Though I really wish to give Magna carta a perfect score, I have to be honest that Magna Carta is really not something not for casual gamers, it takes quite alot of patience and hardwork to drill through the whole game. In such a competitive market with now-renowned Shadow hearts and Star Ocean, this game does fall short as compared to them.

Battles
Though I'm pretty much aware of the high level of features in the battle system from the JP version, unfortunately, Atlus heighten up the already difficult level to insane heights.

If you have the game, or read through other reviews, you need to time your button presses correctly. Missing one button has very very punishing effects for your side and being inflicted with status ailments or being K.O. can actually amount to Game Over if you don't think fast and make correct decisions.

Furthermore, there are alot of limitations to your character supreme-ness. The game DO NOT let you overpower your characters, with actually limited amount of battles in the game. Once you have killed all the enemies in one dungeon, they don't respawn perhaps after some events that you need to pass through it again.

Graphics
I'm not someone who will whine over graphics, but games should try to live up and push the PS2 limits as much as possible. Since day 1 of PS2 era, I no longer have seen any funny angles or jerk images. Magna carta must be originally made for PS1, because the graphic problems of mismatched shades actually existed. The background or rather, the cell shade of the dungeon have the same problem as of FF8 Squall. When the camera moves, you can see uncomfortable "jerks" of the dungeon that should be LONG GONE since PS1 era.

Other than that, I have no problems with characters, just that in some instances, Calintz does look abit funny.